NST August 2026: The Good Life

weenancyinAmerica

Been celebrating my birthday - yesterday with two sisters, today with my Friends of the Library group (free breakfast). Nice and hot here (30C ) but supposed to cool down about two degrees by next week.

My one sister just told us she is having kidney problems. And she was the healthiest one of us we thought. I'll be having back surgery in two months. Trying to get the house cleaned up by then.

Right now cleaning up is a major problem. Roommate G ordered himself another guitar - he still had three after recently giving two away to the library, but felt he "had" to get this one - and they sent him four instead. Now we are trying to find out if he really did order four and send three back for a refund or give them away too as there is no room for the three extra guitars. There isn't even room for one of them. They are crowding up our front room right now along with the rest of the mess from roommate Di.

I am ready to shoot all of my roommates at this point. Just keep telling myself - patience - and if I go to jail, I can't keep the cats with me.

grandmanerd

Happy belated birthday nancy. Keep away from guns and sharp knives. DS3 hasn't forgiven me for 'threatening me with a knife' when he was in his late teens. I was chopping onions and he came into my kitchen and kept making stupid remarks, poke poke poke. Finally I snapped and whirled to face him. I was actually only wagging my finger at him as I told him off but the hand happened to be holding a large knife (I think I rapped him over the knuckles with it).

Yesterday was fairly quiet. I took several bags out to the bins, put the washing out and did one or two other bits but then I started to run out of energy. I went to rest but kept my little wellies on, in case I recovered and could do more. At four I went outside and the heat nearly knocked me over so I gave up on going to the cs (I had been waiting for the worst of the heat to pass). Back to resting and slipped the wellies off because they were dragging my feet down. I currently have 4 bags for various cs on top of the bureau and am starting a fifth. I also have two items under the stairs which I'm leaving until it's time for them to go. All meals came from the fridge. Some items were past their BB date but all have been fine except for one. I didn't like it when I pulled it out and when it was zapped in the microwave, I decided against it (didn't even go for a taste, the smell was enough)

Today I was outside before 10 am. Took the 2 rubble sacks of pillows outside the back wall (the insectutor and the pc tower have both gone - maybe I will have the council after all as I'm down to roughly 5 items). Small bag of rubbish went to the bin - DS3 has stuffed one of his ginormous sacks in there (only light so I think it's mostly things that can go in the recycling bins rather than filling the bin to the brim when It's only just been collected).

I filled 15 bottles with water from the water butt, carried them 5 to a bucket and have watered several trees. The dry washing came in, last few items still languishing by the machine. I have the next load planned but need to clear things away first. I've moved all the drinks back into the vestibule (there's room for a row of 2 l bottles behind the dor and the doorframe to the right can accomodate boxes of 24 cans). The cans had arrived packed inside cardboard boxes so I opened them all and removed the packaging (that will probably be another packed bag in addition to a filled one already waiting). The bed (still in it's packaging) squeezed beside the 2 l bottles and the bottles under the bureau are now visible. The part packs of fizzy and still water are sitting on the walker which is now also in the vestibule (I'm hoping they will find a permanent home under the stairs - walking every time I need a new bottle should help my exercise routine)

Next will be the empty suitcase being filled with 5 of the bubblewrap sheets (one's in my bag so I can show the cs what's on offer) and that will squeeze behind the front door alongside the walker. I had to rest after that little lot, sweating buckets even though it's comfortably shady in here. My afternoon plans are to line up the garden chair, kitchen chair and trolley behind the walker, each loaded with the remaining bags and boxes to be sorted, so that when DS3 wakes up he can move the couch across a cleared floor. He'll help moving the chairs and other piles back too, if he's ordered food as they'll all be in his way. I can use the couch to sort through the remaining bags.

If my legs still work I'll do the planned wash load and then later I'd like to refill all the bottles I can find from the water butt (I need it empty so I can get out the container it's sitting on and replace it with something expendable.

Grateful for rest, 3 good books, having plans.

DawnW

Happy birthday @weenancyinAmerica 😊

I think that you and @grandmanerd have the patience of saints! Far more than I would have anyway.

Lazy-ish day today after 2 days at work. Yesterday was rather trying!

Went to a car boot sale this morning with OH and 12 y o GD who insists on accompanying us these days 😄 Didn't find much today, but I did buy some lovely peaches from the greengrocer there, much nicer than the ones from the supermarket. Also bought some for GD to take back with her to share with her brother, Mum and Dad 😊

Fed the tomatoes, cucumbers, dahlias and a few other things afterwards, then picked some more courgettes and cucumbers, plus some small red peppers. I had some slices of red pepper in my lunchtime wrap. The tomatoes will need picking, but OH seems to have taken to doing that.

I have done a bit of hoovering and dusting upstairs and may go back and do some more. Or possibly sort out some of my sales stock which is all over the spare room atm 🙄 Dinner tonight will be mushroom risotto, so no need to do anything towards that yet.

Sunny again here, and no prospect of rain, so I will need to water later. There is supposed to be another hot spell (30m degrees plus - it is only high 20s at the moment) during the coming week. I am not looking forward to that, but I do sense a change in the season. It is getting dark earlier, and it is often chilly enough to need a cardigan early mornings

f0xh0les

Happy Sunday! Happy Birthday @weenancyinAmerica

DH found a dead rat at the kerb just outside my gate, so I scooped him (or her) up with a piece of plastic and put them in the bin (the rat, not DH), I had just clipped all the lavender, so hopefully it will hide the smell. I think it had been poisoned, so wasn't going to leave them there for the local moggies or foxes to find and complete the circle. I did see an exterminator van about 6 weeks ago, so maybe there is a problem locally, either way, it is in the bin and will be off on its travels tomorrow smelling of lavender.

Tidied up the rest of the yard, picked some beans and some tomatoes, swept up a bit, moved a chair and suddenly, 80% of the yard is in order. I think I am going to cut up some of the wood and take it to the tip this week to clear the last difficult corner of all the nonsense there.

I have beaten 50% of the back room into submission, I hate trying to tidy DH's stuff, because I have to ask him what it is, and does he still need it, and he turns into a stroppy man-boy. Now I have an armchair that I can sit on, and I can get to the patio doors to get outside, and I have hoovered that half of the room. Sadly the other half of the room is covered in camping equipment, craft equipment, pieces of computers, bits of bikes and other accoutrements pertaining to the mounting, repairing, and moving of such modes of transport….and he wonders why he can't find anything!

So today has been productive on the cleaning, clearing, and tidying front, but mostly because I am getting rid of all my stuff so that I can have the luxury of a floor, plus all the packaging he insists on keeping for no clearly apparent reason.

We are battling with the problem of nobody answering the door when DH or I go out, so I have bought a doorbell with 4 erm, receivers? sound emitting boxes? Loudspeakers? Bells? Alarms? Chimes? Whatever they are called, there will be one on each floor from now on and hopefully they will solve the problem. The postman is getting sniffy with me about them not opening the door when he rings the bell ("I know they are in there!!" he says). It is bad when even the postman finds them annoying because they are stopping him doing his job. DH does keep him busy with all his parcels now he is boycotting The Big River Store. Support your local Postie!

Oh, and DS1 is having his first adventure in Spain to see the total eclipse there with his friends.

beanielou

Happy birthday @weenancyinAmerica.

Spurred on by @grandmanerd I have been doing yet more decluttering & a whole lot has just been picked up

apple_muncher

Happy belated birthday , weenancy. I hope you had cake!

I've been pottering about the garden for the last few days. The front got deadheaded and cut back a little. In the back, I dug out some more soil and moved it to get the last sleeper in place. Dh came and chiseled some concrete away for me. It's not finished, but should just need one more session on it. Once that is done, I can start to build the raised bed with the other sleepers.

Dh has put in a new light pull cord in the bathroom, and changed the looseat from a plastic monstrosity to a tasteful one.

We've been in touch with dh's kids and the one out in Canada has been very near the wildfires. They moved house about 2 months ago, and their old house is in the evacuation zone. They're very glad to have to have moved!

Today I am grateful for instant messaging, for making some cheesy biscuits for tea, for progress in the garden, for utube videos, for the fan.

DawnW

Starting to get hot here again 😏

I didn't have a good night as I had indigestion (I blame those blimmin antibiotics) then I was uncomfortable, then I kept dozing and dreaming and waking myself up, then it was 4.30 and thought I might as well just get up! Feel ok now, but tired. I might have a nap later, but probably won't - I can't sleep much at night let alone during the day!

Anyway, I have walked the dog, cleaned out the fridge, cooked up some sad looking but in date bacon, tidied the kitchen, registered the guarantee for my new dishwasher (avoiding paying for the extended warranty that they try to persuade / force you into getting, total waste of money IMO) and picked a small bowl of raspberries, so made a decent start to the day. Not sure how much else will get done, apart from the watering as I don't want my plants to die.

Esmeralda2662

Hi @apple_muncher, please can I join? Thank you!

grandmanerd

On Sunday I stopped when my knees went on strike. Yesterday I was rather creaky but managed to do little thing each time I went to the bathroom. At noon I went to Coffee and Chat, got as far as the ramp up to the library and realised I hadn't picked up a can from the stack so went back to my house and then sat on the walker for a few minutes before going back. My leg ached nearly the whole way through but I made it and I picked up 3 large print books before I came home.

I spent most of the time resting and stretching out my leg and back. I unwrapped the parcels that had come - new filters for the CPAP, a new pillow to support my neck, head and shoulders and books. The former were medical and I've decided that books don't count (I kept this rule throughout my sons' childhood even though I was much poorer then. I promised to take books to my grand-daughters each month and I'm sticking with it.

That said, I have decided that on Sunday (roughly half way through the month) I will take a forensic look at my spending so far and work out how to do better.

Today's priorities were to clean my mask and hose and to strip the bed and get the bedding in the wash. I cheated on that one a bit because I got them out from under a pile of stuff. I have cleared a lot of stuff but there is more to do. I may pack everything in bags and get the mattress back where it belongs (I should nearly be able to move the 2 seater couch by then (may have to sweep assorted clutter to one side. Lunch was red pepper hummus with tenderstem broccoli, baby sweetcorn, the remaining mushrooms and some mange tout. Probbaly quite expensive but good for me and I was using up things from the fridge and can plan next weeks meals. I had things from the freezer yesterday.

Grateful for good food, finishing my book (second time of reading and much more enjoyable than the first time) and my new pillow (also got my other one back off the line so should be more comfortable once the mattress is back in it's frame),

apple_muncher

Hi Esmeralda - you're in!

Pip has been having a hard time with chronic pain so today I got him an emergency Dr appointment and he now has some painkillers to take at night that should help him sleep. We start them at the weekend.

Today I am grateful for next door's lovely cat who comes to visit, for getting a Dr appointment and some pills for Pip, for bumping into an old friend at the gym , for 'seeing' the eclipse via the Royal Greenwich Observatory live stream, for a friend in N Spain sending me a photo of the eclipse there, for egg and chips.